A new study conducted by a group of researchers including Charles Silver (Texas) concludes that Texas's 2003 tort reforms did not lower health care costs. The Austin American-Statesman has the details.

The impact of a law depends on both its current legal status and expectations about its future constitutionality. We investigate the effect of tort reform by segmenting reforms into those that are eventually declared unconstitutional (temporary) and those that are unchallenged or upheld (permanent). We find permanent tort reforms lower medical malpractice insurance losses and premiums and increase insurer profitability. In contrast, the effects of temporary reforms are never statistically significant. Measures that combine temporary and permanent reforms, the norm in the literature, significantly misestimate the impact of tort reform. Our results suggest that examining the effect of a current law without accounting for its future treatment produces misleading results.

The ABA’s Legal Education, ADR and Problem Solving (LEAPS) Project has developed some materials to help law school faculty incorporate some instruction in practical problem-solving in various courses. Many of the ideas would require little or no additional time for instructors or students. For example, when discussing selected cases in doctrinal courses, faculty can frame questions in the context of client interviews or counseling or negotiation between lawyers instead of appellate arguments.

The project has also assembled panels of consultants in eight subject areas to provide advice and materials specific to those subjects. Torts is one of the subjects included.

The website has a lot of useful information about teaching techniques generally and links to other resources: http://leaps.uoregon.edu/.

If you like to use current events in your class, this might provide some good hypos: Rappers Chris Brown and Drake were involved in an altercation at a SoHo nightclub. Bystanders apparently were injured in the melee, and one now plans to sue.